Love paneer but are lactose intolerant, so you can’t eat it? Have changed to a vegan diet and require a paneer replacement? Here is a handmade recipe that uses just three regular kitchen ingredients—water, vinegar, and peanuts—to produce paneer.

2 cups of peanuts should be washed once and placed in a bowl. Now pour warm water into the basin and soak the peanuts for an hour. Add the peanuts to a blender after draining all the extra water. To make a thick paste, add about 14 cup of water and combine thoroughly. If you have a tiny blender, you can blend in batches, but make sure the peanuts are properly smashed and become a paste.

Put 1 litre of water and peanut paste in a pot. Turn the flame to medium and continue blending until the paste and water are thoroughly combined. The peanut milk doesn’t need to be boiled; simply turn off the flame after 2-3 minutes of constant stirring. Now pour the milk through a strainer that has been lined with cloth. Squeeze a potli thoroughly to get rid of all the milk. Take the peanut milk and put it in a pot. The potli contains peanut pulp that can be used to make halwa, barfi, and other desserts.

Now put the pot with peanut milk on medium flame. Meanwhile, dilute 1 tbsp white vinegar in 4 tablespoons of water. Once a boil comes in the milk, switch off the flame. Now add half of the diluted vinegar and stir continuously. Once the milk starts curdling, add the remaining vinegar mixture to the pot and keep stirring. Gently stir the mixture till all the chenna separates and leaves a watery mixture behind.

The chenna shouldn’t be left in the vinegar mixture for too long or it can get sour. So as soon as all the chenna has separated, we’ll immediately strain it. Use a silt cloth to line a large strainer or sieve before beginning the straining procedure. To get rid of the watery combination, pour the chenna mixture through it. To remove the vinegar odour from the paneer, add two to three cups of cold water.

The muslin cloth should now be made into a potli, and the surplus water should be squeezed out of it. Placing a weight on top of the potli after it has been placed on a plate. This will aid in giving the paneer its characteristic form. Give it an hour to sit like this. Don’t leave the paneer for more than an hour like this, as might become too dry.

Your homemade Paneer without any milk is now ready to be used. You can use it to make Sabzi, Curry, Sandwich, Wrap and even chenna-based sweets like Rasgulla, Rasmalai etc. For storage, fill a bowl with water and dip the paneer in it and keep it in the fridge. You can store this paneer for two days.